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Roaming Truck Vendors to Lobby City Council for Permits

The battle over “tweet vending” continues with roaming trucks trying to avoid getting fined by the the city Department of Licenses and Inspections.

KYW’s Paul Kurtz reports on Broad Street near Callowhill, Kate Carrara is running a bustling business from inside her bakery on wheels. Kate, better known as the Buttercream Cupcake Lady, is part of a new breed of gourmet vendors on trucks who tweet their locations ahead of time. Last week she was busted by L&I for accidentally pulling into University City without a permit.

“I really can’t be in Center City or University City at this point. I get to Love Park because Love Park lets me.”

Carerra and her fellow travelers are now beginning to lobby City Council to amend the rules.

“Other than an ice cream truck, there’s nothing I can do. My thing is, let’s have a few locations around the city that are hot. This food truck thing is hot, and charge us. My husband did the math and said, ‘Boy, the city could make a lot of money off of these permits.'”

Philly currently has about a half dozen trucks that do drive-by dining.